ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has agreed to construct two youth hostels that will offer discounted lodging to enable young people, especially students, who visit the capital for a limited duration.
According to details, the CDA’s chiefs of the planning and engineering wings were present as the decision was announced by Noorul Amin Mengal, the civic body’s chairman.
According to Member Engineering Syed Munawar Shah, development on the hostels has already begun and has received preliminary approval.
The planning division has been seeking suitable locations to construct these facilities, he said, adding that, once CDA receives information on the authorized sites, it will move toward PC-I of the project and tendering.
The custodian of Islamabad’s land bank, CDA maintains certain dormitories for its employees, but there is no similar facility for young people, primarily students and young professionals, who travel to Islamabad.
Besides, it is also challenging to get a room at some of the ministries’ lodging facilities due to a lack of available space.
A CDA representative said that the idea to build youth hostels came about as a result of a young guy from a rural area of Punjab visiting the headquarters of the municipal organization and meeting the chairman.
He informed the CDA chairman that he had been to Islamabad in preparation for a test that would take place in two weeks, but had been unable to locate adequate housing there due in part to the high cost.
Mengal requested that his staff members look into what may be done to help the young people.
The official informed him that while CDA does possess hostels, they are just for its staff and that a significant number of individuals contact the CDA each year seeking lodging.
The CDA chairman decided to build facilities for them and gave the relevant officials the go-ahead to begin developing the plan, the official said.
According to sources in the planning division, a few potential hostel locations have been found and will soon be presented to the chairman for his approval.
The absence of dormitories is one of the biggest problems students in Islamabad deal with, since government-owned institutions, as well as private universities, lack on-campus housing, forcing students to choose pricey private hostels.
It must be noted that Islamabad once had a facility of this like, known as the ‘Aam Sarya Inn’ in G-7 which was constructed in the 1980s to provide lodging for short-term visitors to the federal capital.
After some time, CDA lost interest in the structure, and it was closed, which was given to NAB a few years ago, but the accountability watchdog likewise abandoned the one-story structure.
